Congress kept the space program on a budgetary diet for years with the expectation that missions would continue to launch on time and under cost. NASA felt the pinch, and the astronauts that lifted off in Columbia suffered the consequences. NASA's rule regarding safety first, so prevalent after the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, waned over the years, but it wasn't necessarily the fault of the organization itself.

The Columbia accident came 16 years after the 1986 Challenger tragedy in which seven crew members were killed. In that time, promises had been made by those in charge, but shuttle safety was hindered by NASA's internal culture, government constraints, and vestiges of a Cold War-era mentality. While NASA continues to develop ways to transport astronauts from Earth to the space station and to develop a Commercial Crew Program (CCP), no other programs are currently planned for manned flights. Privately funded missions are becoming the order of the day. In 2011, NASA's space shuttle fleet was officially retired. Hindes’ grandfather, Bill Rendle, worked as a contractor for NASA years ago, and Hindes says Rendle got to see just about. It was a horrific tragedy, particularly considering that the shuttle was on its 28th mission and had been a solid vehicle for space exploration and research since the 1980s. What happened to the space shuttle Columbia effectively ended NASA's shuttle program. They were photos of the 1986 Challenger disaster, as it happened. On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was reentering Earth's atmosphere after a two-week routine mission when it exploded, killing all seven astronauts aboard and scattering debris across multiple states.

Columbia disaster human bodies pictures